Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, although albeit it is ranked only 2388th on The Greatest Books of All Time site…I have enjoyed it, only I am not sure how much, by the end of this note, maybe I will have a better idea – you find reviews of magnum opera from The GOAT and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, although albeit it is ranked only 2388th on The Greatest Books of All Time site…I have enjoyed it, only I am not sure how much, by the end of this note, maybe I will have a better idea – you find reviews of magnum opera from The GOAT and other web pages on my blog  https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

8 out of 10

 

I have read three novels by Anne Tyler https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-accidental-tourist-by-anne-tyler.html and this is the second time that I read Breathing Lessons, Winner of The Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1989, the year of the Revolution in which I took part, when Ceausescu was deposed

 

I know I enjoyed it so much the first time, although I am not sure why I did not post a review on it, after all, I suffer from hypergraphia on the one hand, on the other, I have some impressive results on Goodreads, as for the second encounter, I have not decided yet, it was entertaining, some passages not that much

Maggie Moran is the heroine, and likeable as she is, I did get annoyed, for instance, when she runs the car into that mail post, smashing the tail lights, because she did not change the position of the seat, and accelerated, instead of breaking, something she had done before, she had an accident the same day, just outside the workshop

 

A Spool of Blue Thread https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-spool-of-blue-thread-by-anne-tyler.html was not as good as Breathing Lessons, at least according to the review I have on the blog, and I guess The Accidental Tourist is more in my mind due to William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and the movie made based on the novel

Maggie tries to help, but quite often her husband, Ira Moran, is right in saying she interferes: their son, Jesse had been married to Fiona, and they have a daughter, Leroy, but they have been divorced for some years now – this does not prevent Maggie from thinking that they should be back together, and furthermore, she will ‘engineer it’

 

The last part is not her thinking, it is what Ira calls her efforts – I am reminded of Years of Grace https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/06/years-of-grace-by-margaret-ayer-won.html Pulitzer Winner in 1931 – people marry too young in there, and it does not work out, the same for Breathing Lessons, Jesse and Fiona were teenagers

They have to travel to a funeral, on the way back, we have this bizarre occurrence, a car stops brusquely in front, they are off the road, and to take revenge, Maggie says that driver that his wheel is coming off, when they pass him, and she sees that he is old, black and helpless too late, remorse makes them drive back

 

Some passages felt too long, as aforementioned, a few incidents were not entertaining, and then the relationship between Ira and Maggie was awkward, let me mention another classic I remember, The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-seven-principles-of-making-marriage.html

 

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